Dynamic Points Best Practice?

Question

I am looking for any suggestions or best practices I should follow to show points from a SQL DB that are constantly updating.  The information is coming from an AVL server and doesn't need to be stored in a GIS layer and the location graphically represented on the map.  We are talking about less than 50 points at any given time, so I don't think doing it as graphics would be an issue.  The points will also have up to 10 values associated with them ie. Vehicle ID, Speed, Heading, etc that will be visible through a mouse over effect.  The symbol will also change based on one or more attributes.

I looked at the RSS feeds in the samples, but those appear to be hit or miss as to when they work.  I am using the SilverMapDemo as my project base.

I'm not sure creating an event layer in the map service will provide the constant position updates needed without a page refresh.

Any suggestions welcome.  Thanks in advance

Keith

MartenLiebster · Answer

Why not just setup a timer in the Silverlight app and update your features every so often? You could even display a progress bar in your app informing the user how long until the next update.

Another way (the above is among the methods I would try), would be to use the Duplex functionality in SL. Same idea, it abstracts the timer and throws events when a value is received from the server. But this is a MS centric idea, the one above is not.

DavidLowther · Answer

Why not just setup a timer in the Silverlight app and update your features every so often? You could even display a progress bar in your app informing the user how long until the next update.